Czech Posters between the Wars: 1918–1938)
Illustrated posters in the Czech Lands, as in all of Europe, began in the mid-19th century, thanks to advances in printing technology, in particular lithography. The latter half of the 1890s, up until 1900, marked the peak of "postermania" in the Czech Lands, and in Central Europe as a whole. The twenty years between World Wars I and II may be viewed as the poster’s second golden age. The posters in this catalogue present various aspects of life in interwar Prague, the capital city and natural center of the new, confident state. Some of them are by well-known artists; the others, however, are the work of little-known names.
The catalogue was issued by the Museum in cooperation with the Czech Center New York to accompany the exhibition in the Czech Center New York, May – June, 2001.Buquoy Glass in Bohemia)
The Buquoy noble family, originally from the region of Artois (in the past, a part of the Spanish Low Countries, now France), entered the Bohemian scene through the person of Charles Bonaventure de Longeval, Count of Bucquoy, a commander of the Imperial Army (1571–1621). In 1620, Emperor Ferdinand II granted the general confiscated estates at Nové Hrady, Rožmberk and Libějovice in southern Bohemia. In the region with a rich glass-making tradition, the Buquoys strove to carry on the heritage of the once-famous Rožmberk glassworks. From the mid-17th to the 18th century, the Buquoy glass houses in southern Bohemia produced intricately-shaped goblets, sauce boats, bowls, table centrepieces, humorous jugs and other objects, preserved in many museums and private collections. Production did not only specialize in hot-formed glass; glass-cutting and glass-engraving workshops are known to have been worked at the glassworks and in their immediate vicinity. The first half of the 19th century is generally regarded as the peak period in the history of Buquoy glass manufacture. The then owner of the estate, Jiří František Buquoy, a naturalist and philosopher, was instrumental in introducing many new techniques in the south Bohemian glassworks. One of his innovations included the invention of black and red hyalith glass, which soon met with high acclaim both in the Czech lands and abroad. To this day, this type of glassware is highly coveted by glass collectors and specialists.